title: Younger age, female sex, and high number of awakenings and arousals predict fatigue in patients with sleep disorders: a retrospective polysomnographic observational study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) is widely used to assess fatigue, not only in the context of multiple sclerosis-related fatigue, but also in many other medical conditions. Some polysomnographic studies have shown high FSS values in sleep-disordered patients without multiple sclerosis. The Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS) has increasingly been used in order to assess fatigue, but polysomnographic data investigating sleep-disordered patients are thus far unavailable. Moreover, the pathophysiological link between sleep architecture and fatigue measured with the MFIS and the FSS has not been previously investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective observational study (n = 410) with subgroups classified according to sleep diagnosis. The statistical analysis included nonparametric correlation between questionnaire results and polysomnographic data, age and sex, and univariate and multiple logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The multiple logistic regression showed a significant relationship between FSS/MFIS values and younger age and female sex. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between FSS values and number of arousals and between MFIS values and number of awakenings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Younger age, female sex, and high number of awakenings and arousals are predictive of fatigue in sleep-disordered patients. Further investigations are needed to find the pathophysiological explanation for these relationships.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hanse-Klinikum, Stralsund, Germany ; Department of Neurology, Centre Hospitalier de Belfort-Montbéliard (CHBM), Montbéliard, France.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Veauthier
keywords: Fatigue Severity Scale; Modified Fatigue Impact Scale; age; fatigue; multiple sclerosis; nocturnal awakening; polysomnography; sleep disorders